Chapter 1 Definition And Characteristics

Question 0

A scientific approach for discovering environmental variables that reliably influence socially significant behavior and for developing a technology of behavior change that takes practical advantage of those discoveries

The science in which tactics derived from the principles of behavior are applied to improve socially significant behavior and experimentation is used to identify the variables responsible for behavior change

Answer 0

ABA

Question 1

A systematic approach to the understanding of natural phenomena, as evidenced by description, prediction, and control that relies on determinism, empiricism, replication, parsimony and philosophical doubt

Answer 1

Science

Question 2

Exist when a well controlled experiment reveals they a specific change in one event (dependent variable) can reliably be produced by specific manipulations of another event (idependent variable) and that the change in the dependent variable was unlikely to be the result of the other extraneous factors (confoumdimg variables)

Answer 2

Functional relation

Question 3

Philosophy of the science of behavior

Answer 3

Behaviorism

Question 4

The assumption that the universe is a lawful and orderly place in which phenomena occur I’m relation to other events and not in a willy-nilly, accidental fashion

Answer 4

Determinism

Question 5

The objective observation of the phenomena of interest; objectivity means “independent of the individual prejudices, tastes, and private opinions of the scientist…results of empirical methods are objective in that they are open to anyone’s observation and do not depend on the subjective belief of the individual scientist”

Answer 5

Empiricism

Question 6

A carefully conducted comparison of some measure of the phenomenon of interest under toe or more different conditions in which only one factor at s time differs from one condition to another

Answer 6

Experiment

Question 7

Basic research into principles of behavior

Employs the methods of natural science to discover general principles of behavior

Answer 7

experimental analysis of behavior

EAB

Question 8

A fictitious variable that often is simply another name for the observed behavior that contributes nothing to the understanding of the variables responsible for developing or maintaining behavior

Answer 8

Explanatory fiction

Question 9

An approach to the study o behavior which assumes that a mental or “inner” dimension exists that differs from a behavioral dimension

Answer 9

Mentalism

Question 10

Uses scientific manipulations of only observable public events to search for functional relationships between events

A philosophical position that considers behavioral events that cannot be outside the realm of the science

Answer 10

Methodological Behaviorism

Question 11

Requires that all simple, logical explanations for the phenomena under investigation be ruled out before more complex explanations are considered

Answer 11

Parsimony

Question 12

Requires the scientist to continually question the truthfulness of what is regarded as fact

Answer 12

Philosophical doubt

Question 13

Considers private stimuli such as thinking and seeking to be no different from public events

Answer 13

Radical behaviorism

Question 14

The repeating of experiments and conditions within experiments which allows scientists to determine the reliability and usefulness of their findings

Answer 14

Replication

Question 15

A presumed but unobserved process or entity

Answer 15

Hypothetical construct